Tuesday, May 31, 2011

We left off last week discussing certain excerpts from the grand jury transcript from the Plantation Cop's mortgage fraud case, let's take another look at those excerpts...

With respect to this particular Indictment, we’re talking about the first count, which is a conspiracy count. It’s a conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, and filing of false statement with a Government agency, the Department of Housing & Urban Development.

Filing a false statement with a government agency, specifically the Department of Housing & Urban Development? The loans in question weren't FHA or government insured, so why in the world would anyone think that the HUD-1's for the loans in question were filed with HUD?
In case there was any confusion, the prosecutors presented the grand jury with testimony from one of the agents working the case who confirmed that indeed the HUD-1's in question were filed with the Department of Housing & Urban Development...

Q. And the department or agency to which the HUD-1 is submitted is the Department of Housing & Urban Development?

A. Yes.

Isn't that nice? The obvious problem with these statements is that their flat out WRONG! The prosecutor presenting the case to the grand jury knows so little about the intricacies of mortgage and real estate transactions that he makes this obvious misrepresentation, to add insult to injury he brings in an agent to testify who knows just as little about the subject at hand as he does. Fabulous.

Here's something else to consider, could it be possible since grand jury proceedings are secret, that the prosecutor took some liberties with the truth? Take a look at the same two excerpts from the grand jury transcripts, this time without the obvious misrepresentations...

With respect to this particular Indictment, we’re talking about the first count, which is a conspiracy count. It’s a conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, and filing of false statement with a Government agency, the Department of Housing & Urban Development lender.

And...

Q. And the department or agency to which the HUD-1 is submitted is the Department of Housing & Urban Development lender?

A. Yes.

Doesn't that sound completely different? Somehow allegedly lying to a lender (or bank) sounds less damning than lying to a "government agency, the Department of Housing & Urban Development". The question that remains is why would the prosecutor and the case agent in question lie to the grand jury? Was the case too weak to go forward based on the truth? Did the prosecutors need this extra bit of "spice" to push the grand jury to indict or could the prosecutors and agents who worked the case actually know so little about the case that they were prosecuting that they made an innocent mistake? I doubt it. I'm more inclined to believe that this misrepresentation of the facts was designed solely to paint the subjects of the indictment in as bad of light as possible before the grand jury in order to guarantee an indictment. Simply saying the defendants lied to bank wasn't strong enough but alleging that they committed wire and mail fraud by lying to a government agency is a whole different animal.

The worst part of all this? All the grand jury proceedings are secret. More tomorrow.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Why not? If the truth isn't good enough, why not make up some bullshit to really get the job done? Say your a cop or a prosecutor who's itching to put a case together but can't close the deal, somehow you need that extra little bit of spice to push it over the edge to make your allegations more convincing. We witnessed Miami Dade Prosecutor Bill Kostrzewski do it several times, whether lying to a judge or to a witness to elicit the testimony he needed to help his case, as we said the other day, how about if you go one step further and lie to a grand jury in ordrer to get an indictment?

Take a look at these exceprts from the grand jury transcripts for the Plantation Cop's mortgage fraud case aka "Operation Copout"...

With respect to this particular Indictment, we’re talking about the first count, which is a conspiracy count. It’s a conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, and filing of false statement with a Government agency, the Department of Housing & Urban Development.

Oh really?

Counts 2 through 12 are the mail fraud counts. Counts 13 through 25 are the wire fraud counts. Counts 26 through 33 are the 1001 counts, which is the filing of a false statement with a federal agency.

No kidding? Here's a snippet of the testimony from the agent who put together the case...

Q. And the department or agency to which the HUD-1 is submitted is the Department of Housing & Urban Development?

A. Yes.

Anyone see the problem there? Think it over and we'll discuss in detail tomorrow...

Till tomorrow, take a look back on a post we wrote a while back where we busted veteran (hah) economic crimes prosecutor Bill Kostrzewski lying to a judge during a hearing. Pretty bad right? Tomorrow we're going to see how the prosecutors in the Plantation cops mortgage fraud case did the same thing but worse. Instead of lying to a judge, they lied to the GRAND JURY!

Monday, May 23, 2011

That's right, according to what our friend Al Crespo tells us, several local blogs as well as our humble blog has been banned from City of Miami Computers! From what Al tells us, the following blogs have been blocked by the City of Miami IT department...

Investigation Miami

Take Back Miami

The Straw Buyer

Miami New Times

Coconut Grove Grapevine

TruthDies

Watchdog Report

Political Cortadito

It's an honor to be included in that list of blogs. From what we're told all but a few high ranking City of Miami employees and commissioners have been blocked from viewing the blogs listed above since about two weeks ago. As Mr. Crespo states, this really isn't going to stop city employees from reading the banned blogs since most everyone does so with a smart phone these days. What I'm really surprised at though is the fact that only the upper echelon of city employees is able to read the banned blogs, that really gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling as our blog gets dozens of visits on a daily basis from the following IP address...

My hands are full today preparing for tomorrows scheduled rapture. I know I'm definitely not going anywhere tomorrow but I'm worried about people who might be stuck in my house when it's time tomorrow so I've gone out and purchased a "rapture hatch" for my roof...

This way, any shitheads that may be lounging around my house when the time comes tomorrow will have no problem getting the fcuk out. With that said, we'll see most of you on Monday, stay tuned, it's going to be an exciting week for those of us that are still here...

Thursday, May 19, 2011

That's right! Things are tough all over and as everyone can see the City of Miami is whoring itself out to anyone and everyone to make a buck to cover up budget shortfalls. Look at the grotesque ad murals on the side of public buildings, the red light cameras that promised millions in revenue but have failed miserably and worse, Mayor Regalado legalizing the electronic gambling machines that plague our city in search of a few hundred thousand dollars in revenue to plug holes in the city budget.

So what's the city to do in order to try to eek out every last penny from the tax payers to continue to fund their ridiculous government employee pay and benefit packages? How about sending police officers out to jack money from innocent people?! Sit back and read this...

You get that? In a nutshell the complaint alleges that two unnamed City of Miami police officers instruct homeland security to grab two people off a plane at the Miami International Airport, the cops then interrogate the two travelers in an interrogation room at the airport and take $9,100.00 in cash off of one guy and $8,900.00 off the other guy. The cops then transport the subjects to the City of Miami Police headquarters building where they are further interrogated and told that all their belongings and money are being confiscated, after approximately seven and a half hours the subjects are escorted out of the headquarters building and dumped out on the street, even worse throughout the entire ordeal the two City of Miami cops refused to identify themselves or even give the poor guys any kind of receipt for their property!

Sound far fetched? Maybe some ridiculous claims by some guys looking to score in a civil suit against the city? Could the lawyer be full of shit? Keep in mind, the alleged incident took place back September of 2010 and this lawsuit was filed only a few days ago. Why the wait? Was the police department aware of what was going on? How about Chief Exposito or maybe the Mayor himself? Was anyone aware of these allegations? This letter that was attached to the complaint should answer those questions...

HOLY SHIT! According to this letter written to Detective Ihosvany Cuervo from the victims attorneys, the city and the police department were aware of this incident since late September 2010 and it seems as if the Detective from internal affairs even met with the attorney and the victims in regards to the incident. What's most troubling about the whole ordeal is that to this day, nearly nine months since the incident occurred, the City of Miami Police Department WILL NOT REVEAL THE IDENTITIES OF THE POLICE OFFICERS INVOLVED! The letter also reveals that as of December 3, 2010 Mayor Regalado, Chief Miguel Exposito and city attorney Julie O. Bru were made aware of the situation and have done nothing about it for five months, not even the courtesy of returning a phone call to the victims attorneys which left him no choice but to file suit on behalf of his clients. What a fucking mess.

So what do we have? Let's capsulize; two City of Miami police detectives that are accused of...

Civil Theft

False Imprisonment

Conversion

Conspiracy

I would have gone one step further and included the City Attorney, the Mayor and the Police Chief as part of the conspiracy because of their inaction in dealing with the alleged charges.

If the allegations against the unnamed police officers are false, why hasn't the city revealed their identities? Why has the police department and the city attorney sat by for months on end rather than dealing with the situation? Consider for a moment if the allegations are true, the police department could have probably made the whole thing go away by simply repaying the victims and sending them on their way. Instead, they've literally ignored the victims and their attorneys and have now opened themselves up to a lawsuit that could potentially end up costing the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars if the victims prevail in court. Even worse, there could be grounds for a 1983 Civil Rights action which could cost the taxpayers even MORE money!

I'm at a loss. Can someone please let me know what in the fuck is going on in our city?

On another note, when our favorite MDPD cop, Detective Jorge Baluja, comes across this post, don't fret, just because I haven't written about you in a while, don't think I've forgotten about you. I got a nice surprise waiting for you next week.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

No shit?! With fuel prices hovering in the mid four dollar range, there isn't a single one of us that whose wallet hasn't taken a hit, that is unless you work for the City of Miami fire department. I got stuck having to drive up to northern Broward county (ugh) last Thursday, lo and behold three quarters of the way up the county I come across one of the City of Miami's finest...

What struck me as strange was that I happened upon this City of Miami employee at 2:50 PM and like I said in northern Broward county of all places...

It's no secret that the overwhelming majority of the City of Miami fire fighters are well compensated (six figures plus) and that there's some that have take home cars. It's also a well known fact that there are many that live outside the city. I continued north on I-95 till I got to my exit (Hillsborough Blvd) which was the northernmost exit in Broward county, the city vehicle pictured above kept going, presumably into Palm Beach county.

So what was this City of Miami Fire department employee doing? On their way home perhaps? Maybe on the way to their second job? What really pissed me off about this incident wasn't the fact that a city employee was driving a city owned car two counties away or the fact that the city employee was two counties away during the mid afternoon, what pissed me off (especially after spending SEVENTY DOLLARS TO FILL UP MY CAR) was the fact that the city of Miami's taxpayers were paying for this guys gas!

Al Crespo, Investigation Miami and Take Back Miami have all done fantastic jobs illustrating the waste and outright graft that's occurring in the city on several other fronts. Look at the measures the city is taking to fill it's budget gaps (ad murals on city buildings, red light cameras, etc) while they're throwing away money paying for things like take home cars and fuel for non emergency fire department employees.

What really puts things in perspective though is the fact that the investigators that are building cases against some of the city employees with a penchant for criminal behavior make a fraction of what they do therefore giving them that extra bit of motivation when building a case. Stay tuned, there's another indictment just around the corner...

Friday, May 13, 2011

Some of you may have noticed that the Blogger service provided by Google has been down for the last 24 hours temporarily erasing the last 48 hours worth of posts and comments. Everything seems to be back in working order now.

Regardless, the attorney representing Joe Guaracino in the second phase of the Plantation cops mortgage fraud trial, Mike Walsh, has reappeared and is apparently fine. According to the Miami Herald...

On Monday, Walsh went to South Miami Hospital, but U.S. marshals were unable to find him when they went there to serve him with papers on the hearing set for Tuesday morning, according to authorities.

It seems that Mr. Walsh wasn't at South Miami Hospital but at Larkin General Hospital just up the street, the U.S. Marshals service was at the wrong hospital. From what we're told he appeared telephonically this morning before Judge Cohn in federal court and apparently the trial is moving forward next week although Judge Cohn has issued an order requiring Mr. Walsh's mental health to be evaluated before moving forward in court.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Our sources tell us that the attorney representing Joseph Guaracino in the second phase of the Plantation cops mortgage fraud trial, Michael Walsh, is alive and well and will be appearing before Judge Cohn tomorrow morning in federal court.

From what we're told defense attorney Michael Dennis Walsh is still missing. We've been told that he could possibly be suffering from a nervous breakdown or a possible heart attack. Regardless, he's still missing, we hope the best for Mr. Walsh, his family and his clients.

Now, while we're all waiting for the second phase of the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud trial to proceed, let's take a quick look at this fantastic article from Rolling Stone magazine regarding Goldman-Sachs role in mortgage and real estate meltdown. From the article...

To recap: Goldman, to get $1.2 billion in crap off its books, dumps a huge lot of deadly mortgages on its clients, lies about where that crap came from and claims it believes in the product even as it's betting $2 billion against it. When its victims try to run out of the burning house, Goldman stands in the doorway, blasts them all with gasoline before they can escape, and then has the balls to send a bill overcharging its victims for the pleasure of getting fried.

Now consider that we just spent the last year or so watching the federal prosecution of former police officers unfold who were essentially accused of doing no more than simply lying or misstating their incomes on their loan applications. Think about how much the prosecution of the Plantation cops must have cost the taxpayers then try to reconcile how minuscule the economic impact of their alleged crimes were on the overall economy when compared to the role Goldman-Sachs played in the mortgage meltdown. As you know, three years after the shit officially hit the fan hundreds if not thousands of street level mortgage fraudsters are either behind bars or being currently prosecuted, yet despite the billions of dollars of damage the folks over at Goldman-Sachs did to our economy, not a single Goldman-Sachs employee or executive has been charged, despite the fact that if nothing else GS executives went before a senate subcommittee and LIED UNDER OATH! From the article...

...and when called to Washington last year to explain their behavior, Goldman executives brazenly misled Congress, apparently confident that their perjury would carry no serious consequences. Thus, while much of the Levin report describes past history, the Goldman section describes an ongoing? crime — a powerful, well-connected firm, with the ear of the president and the Treasury, that appears to have conquered the entire regulatory structure and stands now on the precipice of officially getting away with one of the biggest financial crimes in history.

"Article 18 of the United States Code, Section 1001," says Loyola University law professor Michael Kaufman. "There are statutes that prohibit perjury and obstruction of justice, but this is the federal statute that explicitly prohibits lying to Congress."The law is simple: You're guilty if you "knowingly and willfully" make a "materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation." The punishment is up to five years in federal prison.

WTF FOLKS?! When will a state or federal prosecutor get the balls to go after these guys? Enough with prosecuting people who lied on their mortgage applications, when are we going to get serious about getting the real villains behind the mortgage and real estate meltdown?!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

It was one hell of a day yesterday! First the judge presiding over the Plantation cops mortgage fraud trial issued an arrest warrant for attorney Michael Dennis Walsh for missing the first day of trial and missing the "order to show cause" hearing. We had been told that Mr. Walsh had a minor heart attack and was hospitalized just before the trial but...

On Monday, Walsh went to South Miami Hospital, but U.S. marshals were unable to find him when they went there to serve him with papers on the hearing set for Tuesday morning, according to authorities.

When the U.S. Marshals couldn't locate Mr. Walsh...

U.S. District Judge James Cohn issued the contempt order. The marshals are now looking for him to serve the warrant.

On another note, yesterday we also learned that the judge that presided over the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case, Mary Barzee Flores, has decided to resign and go into private practice, from the DBR article...

“The enthusiasm among some in Tallahassee to slash spending on our court system, coupled with the staggering volume of new case filings driven by current economic conditions, poses a grave threat to our society.”

I'll keep my opinions of her honor to myself, but I will say this, it's a sad state of affairs when a City of Miami firefighter makes more (in some cases double) than a circuit court judge!

On the agenda for Thursday's commission meeting.....a request by Michelle Spence-Jones that the city of Miami reimburse her for $113,439.40 of legal fees incurred during her "successful defense of two charges brought against her by the State of Florida."Can you imagine that? Now that Spence-Jones has been acquitted in her first criminal case, the taxpayers are on the hook for paying her legal fees! The word on the street is that the second case against Spence-Jones is about to get dropped before trial (unconfirmed), if the City is responsible for paying her legal tab on the first, they'll certainly be responsible for paying the legal fees on the second as well. Even if the case doesn't get dropped before trial, can you imagine the jury convicting her in light of the recent revelations of prosecutorial misconduct and the recanting of testimony from the state's key witness?

I couldn't figure out why defense attorney Michael Dennis Walsh who's representing Joe Guaracino in the Plantation Cops federal mortgage fraud trial would be held in contempt till I found out that Mr. Walsh suffered a minor heart attack and couldn't appear in court. Best of luck to Mr. Walsh and hopefully a speedy recovery as well.

Monday, May 9, 2011

That's right folks, attorney Stephen Orchard who the federal government accused of committing among other things conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and obstruction of justice gets a free pass! Mr. Orchard was about to go on trial for his part in the $16 million Plantation Cops mortgage fraud case along with the remaining codefendants Joe Guaracino and fellow attorney Steven Stoll when out of nowhere he apparently cut a deal with the government. Here's the joint motion to put to place Mr. Orchard on Pretrial Diversion...

What exactly happened here? I'm not too familiar with this pretrial diversion, from what I understand the defendant is basically put on probation for a period of time (18 months in Mr. Orchard's case) and upon successfully completing the pretrial diversion program the charges against him are dismissed. You have to wonder, what changed the governments mind this late in the game, literally days before the trial? Anyone venture a guess?

With Mr. Orchard off the hook, that leaves two of the original codefendants set for trial, Joe Guaracino and attorney Steven Stoll. Should be interesting.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

City of Miami veteran firefighter Thomas Thelusma who was recently indicted in a multi million dollar mortgage fraud scheme can't afford to defend himself! Can you believe it? From the Websters dictionary definition of "indigent"...

So according to Mr. Thelusma he doesn't have the money to pay for his legal defense, let's take this into perspective for a moment, according to the Miami Herald's City of Miami employee salary data base, Mr Thelusma has collected $69,447.32 in base salary in 2011ALONE!Now, factor in what he must be taking in from his Pain Clinic operation plus the alleged ill gotten gains from his foray into mortgage fraud. Considering the potential income Mr. Thelusma must have, how the hell can he claim he's indigent?As if that wasn't bad enough, look where Mr. Thelusma got the 10% for his bond...

That's right, Mr. Thelusma's 10% for his bond came from his church! He must be so down and out that he had to go to the church for his bail money! Nothing wrong with that, not to mention another argument for not being an atheist I guess...

There you have it folks, another public servant who gets in big trouble for business he was conducting while off duty only to stick his hand out to the taxpayers to foot the bill for his defense. Fantastic.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Does everyone remember the Miami Herald's Pulitzer Prize winning series "The House of Lies"? One of the subjects of the series was none other than dirty developer Oscar Rivero, the man who was given millions of dollars from the government to build low income housing yet somehow ended up building nothing more than a mansion for himself in South Miami.

So what happened to Mr. Rivero? He cut a deal with the state to serve two years but at the sentencing hearing Circuit Court Judge Ellen Venzer decided to slam him with a ten year sentence, from the Herald article...

“... actually sentenced Rivero to 10 years in prison, a sentence she will reduce when he surrenders for prison on June 6 -- after he spends the next month giving information to investigators.”

A ten year sentence that was going to be reduced after significant cooperation against other corrupt individuals in local government. So here we are nearly four years later, where's everyone at? Mr. Rivero was released from prison last year and we're now told that he's working at the Biltmore hotel.

What about all those high profile arrests that were supposed come down the pike? It's been years and I can't seem to remember anything happening. Everyone was waiting with bated breath for political insider Oscar Rivero who knew where all the bodies were buried to bring the house down, yet night after night, no perp walks on the news. Nothing. I guess the best advice for those of us waiting for the state to act against the dirty politicians and political insiders caught red handed is don't hold your breath!

Two more indicted in alleged Versailles mortgage fraud

Updated: 11:28 a.m. Friday, April 29, 2011
Posted: 8:25 a.m. Friday, April 29, 2011Carl Alexander and Carol Asbury bet big on Versailles real estate deals.
This week, they lost big, indicted for their part in alleged mortgage fraud in the upscale Wellington community.
They join 24 others who have been indicted or charged in Versailles schemes worth millions, first outlined in a Palm Beach Post series in 2009.
Alexander was among a cluster of about two dozen buyers from the same low-income region of Miami-Dade County. The buyers collectively bought into the Wellington community, then abruptly defaulted on $41 million in loans.
Alexander, among the most prominent players in this cluster, had two personal bankruptcy petitions, one foreclosure filing and a misdemeanor worthless check charge behind him when his company secured a $1.05 million home in Versailles.
The firm, PTL Housing & Investments Inc., assumed management of five other Versailles homes, The Post found. All of the buyers lived within 15 miles of Opa-locka, one of the poorest communities in Miami-Dade County.
According to federal indictments released Wednesday, Alexander was in charge of recruiting the buyers. Usually people of modest means, these bogus buyers were paid anywhere from $700 to $15,000 to purchase a home.
Fraudulent closing documents prepared by Parkland real estate broker David Lam and Asbury concealed the fact that lenders were loaning more money than the actual price of the home, prosecutors said. The difference between the loan and the home price, they said, ultimately was pocketed by Alexander, Asbury and Lam - an estimated $1.8 million on the sale of four homes.
Asbury, 59, founded the Save My Home Law Group in late 2009, state records show. She also sponsors the popular blog 4closurefraud.com . That blog's daily postings of foreclosure documents and regular nationwide updates on court actions are partly credited for exposing the robo-signing scandal that pushed banks to freeze home repossessions in the fall.
"I find it very disturbing that the government must use all their resources to attack the people that are exposing the fraud and corruption," said Michael Redman, who runs the foreclosure blog. "Where are the indictments on all the known felonies committed by the banks, foreclosure mills and doc shops?"
Asbury's title company handled unusual sales. Asbury & Associates was the title company for Myrtice Richardson's $1 million Versailles purchase in 2007. From her 1950s-era, $147,000 Miami home, Richardson, then 71, bought a Versailles mini-mansion on the same street where her husband, Rufus, now deceased, and daughter, Adina, had purchased their own palatial properties.
Neighbors said they did not recall ever seeing the Richardsons move into their Versailles homes, all of which landed in foreclosure.
The Richardsons have not been charged with wrongdoing, and Asbury has not been charged with wrongdoing in the Richardson home sales.
Kenneth Martin, director of lawyer regulation for the Florida Bar, confirmed Thursday that the professional organization has an open investigation into Asbury regarding the mortgage fraud charges. Bar rules require attorneys to notify the Bar's executive director within 10 days of a criminal charge, but there is no automatic suspension or immediate action taken.
Six others have been charged in recent weeks in connection with Versailles mortgage frauds. Named are Godfrey Miles of Miami, a former University of Florida and pro football player; Patrick Brinson of Miami; Weston attorney Michael Samuda; Miami firefighter Thomas Thelusma; Hollywood mortgage broker Victoria Wilson; and David Miller of Miramar.
In all indictments, the alleged scheme was basically the same: Recruit fake buyers, fraudulently secure loans in excess of the purchase price and pocket the difference between the actual home sales price and the inflated loan.
Neither Alexander nor Asbury could be reached for comment. A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office could not say whether either was in custody. Lam has pleaded not guilty.

What the hell is going on over at the fire department? First we have veteran Assistant Fire Chief Veldora Arthur get indicted for her role in a $16mm mortgage fraud and now Thomas Thelusma? Don't these guys make enough money without having to resort to committing eight figure crimes? We all know that the overwhelming majority of firefighters are heroic men and women who put their lives on the line daily to keep the citizenry safe but these few rotten apples are giving the whole lot a bad name.

As the title of today's post states though, the federal mortgage fraud indictment may not be as big of a problem as you'd think for Mr. Thelusma, our sources tell us he's got other trouble brewing over the horizon. Seems like Mr. Thelusma may be the target of another investigation involving another one of his side businesses, a pain management clinic or as law enforcement calls them, "pill mills." From the Sunbiz website...

Fuck it right? If you're going to break the law, go all the way! Mortgage fraud, pill mills and god only knows what else!

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As the city sleeps...

I read a story in the Miami Herald on October 7, 2008 regarding a mortgage fraud case that didn't make any sense to me, I did a little digging and what I found left me stunned. A tale of a task force head whose political ambitions have run amuck, a detective without a modicum of common sense, a reporter that prints anything that's put in front of him, the railroading of an attorney by this machine to further the ambitions of its head and the lengths that those involved will go to in order to salvage a case that should have never been. Please take the time to start from the oldest post first and enjoy...